Winning Together: Technology Agent and Supplier Success Is a Two-Way Street

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By Jeff Wood

It’s hard to believe the telecom indirect sales channel has been around for more than 30 years. Technology services distributors (TSDs) such as TBI, PlanetOne and Intelisys emerged in the early 1990s to sell voice and data services to businesses through sales agents. While some players are still the same, network services and the ways agents sell them have changed a lot during the last three decades. With those changes, the relationships between network providers, aggregators and agents have also evolved, but not always for the better.

You’d think that after 30 years, we’d have partnerships down. We’ve all certainly had a lot of practice. But there are times when telecom agent-supplier relationships work well, times when they don’t, and elements that set successful partnerships apart.

Shifting from Transacting to Partnering: Why Agent-Supplier Collaboration Matters

There are generally two types of partnerships: one is transactional, task-oriented and short-term. The other is strategic, relationship-driven and focused on long-term mutual growth and success.

It’s obvious which model we prefer, but don’t get us wrong; transaction-based relationships are necessary for one-off service requests. For example, if you’re an agent whose bread and butter is selling network circuits, you may have an agreement with a phone system vendor to contact them a couple of times a year when a network customer needs phone service installed.

While transactional relationships have a place, agents should look for strategic partnerships to support their primary network services portfolio. That means choosing suppliers who will invest in the relationship beyond an immediate opportunity.

Forging a Strategic Supplier-Agent Partnership: Why the Partnership Comes First

What does a strategic partnership look like? Ideally, it’s a two-way street, which includes:

Showing Mutual Respect – To the customer, the agent and the supplier are two sides of the same coin and both are essential to their network deployment.

Provider channel managers must acknowledge that agents’ most valuable resource is time, and they have little to spare, so each interaction must provide tangible value to the agent. The provider sales team also needs to avoid getting ahead of their skis with an opportunity in front of them that hasn’t closed yet. Channel managers may be shy of their number at the end of the quarter, but they must never go around their partner to close the opportunity. Why not? Don’t assume the partner has dropped the ball; there’s always information the agent hasn’t shared about the customer, their tech stack or timelines.

Conversely, agents shouldn’t throw suppliers under the bus with the client when an aberrant outage occurs if the supplier is communicating about resolution. Despite marketing claims, outages happen; network providers and aggregators have no control over natural disasters or accidents including backhoes cutting fiber lines. Finger-pointing only damages the hard-won trust among all parties – supplier, agent and customer – and often leads to both the agent and the supplier losing the account.

Communicating Proactively – Communication is vital when there are client service issues. However, proactive communication also is needed for other less urgent but important reasons, such as industry trends and challenges, new solutions and training and expansions in serviceable geographies and industries.

Investing Jointly – Both sides of the partnership must invest in the relationship to create a win-win scenario. This doesn’t mean the investments must be equal;  no one expects a solopreneur or small agency to put forth equivalent effort and resources as a network provider. However, reciprocity is needed to demonstrate the potential for mutual growth.

Avoiding a Transactional Mindset – The supplier and the agent must think beyond the next payment, commission check and SPIFF. Zoom out, look at the bigger picture and view opportunities through a new lens. Ask yourself:

    • Is there long-term growth potential for this account? Do they have multiple locations and need to test before deployment companywide?
    • If the opportunity is for a single location or a few regional sites, can we position ourselves as the trusted solution when they expand in a few years?
    • Can we simplify anything in the client tech environment to save them time in their day-to-day?
    • Can we develop a relationship with the leadership team or IT staff so that if they change jobs, we’re the go-to solution for their new company?
    • Can we identify cost-saving measures – even at the expense of our revenue – that might expedite the rollout of our services at all client locations?

A strategic partnership is rooted in three things: proactively solving each other’s needs, acknowledging each other’s limitations and prioritizing the customer.

The Supplier’s Role in a Strategic Partnership: Remove Roadblocks

If an agent is actively selling and reeling in solid opportunities, what’s the supplier’s role? Simply put, the supplier’s role is to remove roadblocks wherever possible.

Here are a few ways suppliers should support producing partners:

  • Provide Accurate, Not Just Fast, Quotes: Suppliers must provide accurate quotes to agents so there are no surprise deployment costs after the contract signature. Speed to quote, for the sake of speed, doesn’t help agents if the opportunity falls apart due to unexpected expenses.
  • Pay Commissions on Time: Suppliers must ensure commissions are paid on time so agents, in turn, can pay their bills and continue to operate. 
  • Deliver Quality Installations: Supplier reliability impacts an agent’s reputation with clients. If the supplier takes weeks to start an order or is late on milestones, the agents’ recommendation to use that supplier is in question. Clear communication about progress and setting realistic expectations are critical to maintaining trust.
  • Bill Accurately: Telecom invoices are a notorious pain point for partners, with many hours and even months of inquiries required to fix incorrect invoices or credit service outages. The provider must ensure their invoices are accurate and a process is in place for quick resolution should errors arise. 
  • Offer Proactive Support & Problem Resolution: Suppliers must promptly respond to questions or concerns about mission-critical network services. When a service disruption arises, the customer and agent shouldn’t be left hanging without a resolution timeline. 
  • Take Sales & Service Initiative (When Appropriate): While we advise against suppliers going around an agent, there are times when the agent can’t be reached, and the supplier can step in and represent the “team.”

For example, one of our customers, a national medical company, opened a business internet account through an agent. Years later, this customer was considering moving to another provider simply because they’d used them in the past. We couldn’t contact the agent, so we made a business case to the customer to save the account.

This advocacy led to 50-plus new location deployments, and even though the agent wasn’t involved, we paid their commission on the new locations. Why? Without the agent, we wouldn’t have had the account to grow.

The Agent’s Role in a Strategic Partnership: Go Beyond Sales

Now, how about the agent’s responsibilities? Whether making the intro or closing the opportunity, agents always drive the sale. But that’s only part of their job. Beyond selling, there are key areas of responsibility agents need to own:

  • Show Loyalty to Suppliers That Perform Well: Jumping between suppliers for higher SPIFFs is commonplace, but it’s a short-sighted play. If a supplier pays more upfront but doesn’t provide a timely quality installation or deliver consistent technical support, they’ll cost both parties long-term business. Suppliers that agents don’t have to call for commission payments, hound to solve customer issues and adequately scope installations should be rewarded with ongoing opportunities. 
  • Focus on Customer Experience (CX) Over Quick Gains: Accounts that buy mission-critical solutions will grow slowly. In the majority of new opportunities, agents won’t have the chance to serve a customer’s hundreds of locations without first proving the quality and reliability of the network services at a handful of regional locations.

 If an agent’s chosen vendor is only focused on adding the immediate locations and moving on to the next opportunity, they haven’t properly positioned themselves as the supplier of choice going forward. This requires:

    • accurate quoting to avoid surprises post-sale
    • exceptional project management with timely installations
    • precise billing leading to faster payments to the partner
    • the most reliable service available in the market

All of this means an extra investment of time and money upfront.

What’s the takeaway for agents and suppliers?

A successful agent-supplier partnership doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intention, commitment and mutual investment. Success in the network services channel is a two-way street. When agents and suppliers align their goals and work together, both sides win.

Jeff Wood, president of sales at APX Net, has more than 30 years of telecom experience, leading the industry through significant change and opportunity.